The real watersheds in history, crises that make or break a civilization, occur roughly every 100 years. The most recent ones in American history that will resonate without looking up the facts in a reference book are the Revolution, circa 1782; the Civil War, circa 1863; and WW II, circa ...read more

Generational conflict has been recognized since ancient times. The twist here is the discovery of several things that have previously eluded observers. One is that the well- known conflict between fathers and sons is only half the story; there aren't just two generational types that alternate (e.g., liberal and conservative), ...read more

Everybody wants predictions. The following article does a little better than that, in that I wrote it back in November of 1997, outlining several theories of history, and pointing to a logical way of anticipating what will likely happen to the world at large over the next generation. As you will ...read more

If you credit Austrian School Economic Theory, which I certainly do, you’re forced to believe that the business cycle exists. The business cycle is driven largely by government intervention in the economy, in the form of taxes, regulation and, most importantly, currency inflation. These things give false signals to businesses ...read more

In this article, I want to address what stage of the market cycle resource stocks are in, why, what’s likely next, and what you should do about it. For pretty much all my adult life, I’ve been a speculator. That is to say, someone with an appreciation for the relationship between ...read more

Almost everyone, probably including yourself, gets held back by inertia at one time or another. It can happen with anything, including investments. Inertia weighs on an investor, trapping him in a state of paralysis and freezing his portfolio, almost forcing him to hold on to whatever he already owns – for ...read more

Q.: What about Iran? A.: I'm desperately looking for the time to visit Iran while that's still possible. But my take, from reading and talking to overseas Iranians, of whom there are more than a million in North America alone, is that attacking it would be insane. One reason is that ...read more

With the advent of yet another year, we take a close look at the most powerful and least welcome driver of geo-politics-war. As in the misnamed yet overarching War on Terror and in the more specific War in Iraq and, maybe, coming to a theater near you, the expanding New ...read more

Simply put, I don't believe in philanthropy or charitable giving-at least not the ordinary kind. Charitable giving and the concept of charity itself are among the stupidest and most destructive humbugs stalking Americans of good will today. Warren Buffett's bequest of $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides ...read more

I recently shared some updated thoughts on the prospects for a Greater Depression with readers of our International Speculator newsletter. Given the increasing levels of volatility sweeping global markets, I decided to give those thoughts a broader airing below, if for no other reason than to help those of you ...read more